“He’s a young guy in the league, and I think sometimes we forget about that, that he’s only been a starter for two years,” Davis said. “And with that being said, he’s doing all the right things. He’s doing all the right things. Guys in the locker room love him. They think he’s spectacular. I do, as well, because of what he does. He minimizes himself in the locker room; in practice and in games he stands out like a sore thumb.

“And that’s what great quarterbacks do. That’s what they do. I watch those things, and he’s putting his teammates first. He’s putting his teammates first. So that’s first and foremost. He’s growing, he’s evolving, so I’m excited about his career and excited about his future. I think he’s going to be a wonderful quarterback in this league.”

I actually had posted a quote form this year as well originally to compare and contrast how teammates viewed him after but I couldn't actually find anything from one of his ex-teammates that said they didn't like him or he was a bad teammate. One said he didn't think he was "committed" last season. I found some talking head who "did some research" that said it ... no sources or anything though.

“He’s a young guy in the league, and I think sometimes we forget about that, that he’s only been a starter for two years,” Davis said. “And with that being said, he’s doing all the right things. He’s doing all the right things. Guys in the locker room love him. They think he’s spectacular. I do, as well, because of what he does. He minimizes himself in the locker room; in practice and in games he stands out like a sore thumb.

“And that’s what great quarterbacks do. That’s what they do. I watch those things, and he’s putting his teammates first. He’s putting his teammates first. So that’s first and foremost. He’s growing, he’s evolving, so I’m excited about his career and excited about his future. I think he’s going to be a wonderful quarterback in this league.”

I actually had posted a quote form this year as well originally to compare and contrast how teammates viewed him after but I couldn't actually find anything from one of his ex-teammates that said they didn't like him or he was a bad teammate. One said he didn't think he was "committed" last season. I found some talking head who "did some research" that said it ... no sources or anything though.

I think the talking head was probably referring to a conversation with Chris Thompson who basically felt Kirk didn't want to stay with the Redskins but the entire team loves the guy and several Olinemen like Morgan Moses and Trent Williams should have been on IR after the skins were officially eliminated but they decided to play b/c they had so much respect for Cousins.

You all will see that he is a VERY impressive human being and he says all the right things and it never seems to come off as cliché at all. The guy is real and humble and doesn't throw anyone under the bus even when he easily could.

I've talked to some friends and we all agree he could one day be the President of the country!

Talking heads on the NFL network routinely bash him for his record or whatever other stupid thing they do but in DC, around the league (Mike and Kyle Shanahan LOVE him...Kyle was seemingly depressed after the Jimmy Garrapolo trade it seems) from players to coaches know how good he really is.

I have zero doubt the same talking heads not in the DC market are going to realize how wrong they were about him.

Its his draft position and his first couple non-starter years (more INT than TDs and a couple very bad games) and being on a bad team that frames the position of guys like Michael Irvin.

A couple years ago Trent Dilfer said that cousins "lacked physicality" to be a good QB. A few weeks later after he was on ESPN 980 Cooley took him to task and Trent admitted he was completely wrong.

Nice read, thanks. Six different starters in six years is crazy. Absolutely unheard of unless maybe you're the Browns.

... and yet other than the respite of the Culpepper era, hasn't that practically been standard operating procedure for the Vikings for decades? Injuries have played a role, of course, but I'm pretty sure Green had a 6 yeas stretch in which 6 different QBs started (Gannon, Salisbury, McMahon, Moon, Johnson and Cunningham). Childress did too (Johnson, Jackson, Holcomb, Frerotte, Favre and Webb— I think Bollinger started at least one game as well). Oddly enough, they managed to reach conference championship games in each of these 6 year periods.

Let's hope we see some stability and a an NFL championship with Cousins starting.

It's probably the #1 issue that's plagued this franchise. Some of it has been due to bad luck and some of it has been due to lack of foresight/contingency planning. In any case, some semblance of continuity at the QB position would be refreshing.

Pondering Her Percy wrote:For anyone that says Cousins "wasnt a good teammate" I say bull####. He seems like a very humble guy, a leader, appreciative to his teammates, etc. I'm so excited he's our QB

There are a few reports about Kirk not being liked in the locker room. Not a lot but they are out there. Whether they're true or made up, I don't know.

Now I was impressed by Kirks presser but after watching a couple of other interviews, he seems to say almost the exact same thing so to me, some answers seem very rehearsed. It's probably only me but I get a sense of fakeness when listening to him talk at times. Almost like listening to a really good salesman.

I also read that his teammates (especially the OL) love him. So some people love him, a few may not like him. But really, does it matter? There have been reports of teammates not liking Aaron Rodgers too. You don't have to be liked to lead. Respected, but not liked. As long as Kirk can lead this team to wins, I could care less if he turns out to be an obnoxious d**k that is full of himself. Maybe that's what this team is missing, a vocal leader with an edge. Brady, Rothlisberger, Wilson, Rodgers are all pretty arrogant at times. I can see Cousins fitting in fine.

Zimmer said he spoke about Cousins with Los Angeles Rams Coach Sean McVay and San Francisco 49ers Coach Kyle Shanahan, both former offensive coordinators of the Washington Redskins during Cousins’s tenure in D.C., during this week’s annual league meeting being held at an Orlando resort.

“I don’t think it’ll be a very steep learning curve,” Zimmer said at Tuesday morning’s NFL coaches’ breakfast with media members. “He’s a really smart kid. He’s very, very detailed. He wants to have every answer. I talked to Sean McVay yesterday. I talked to Kyle Shanahan a little bit yesterday. And these guys just rave about him. So I don’t think the learning curve will be big.

“But it’s important for us as coaches to do what he does the best. I’ve always said that your offense should be what the quarterback does best, away from, ‘Okay, whatever the playbook says.’ Obviously we’ve got the playbook in, all the installation and all that stuff. That can all go out the window when we get our hands on it and get to know exactly what he’s doing and what he feels comfortable with. You don’t pay that guy that much money to try to put him in a square hole.”

Not sure If this was posted but it's an interesting read on pay of QB's.

We then plotted those seasons based on the quarterback’s winning percentage and cap hit percentage during that season. Here is the result.

We get a correlation coefficient of .038. If you’ve forgotten everything you learned in that statistics course you took back in college, that’s statistically meaningless. For a point of comparison, there is a stronger correlation (three times stronger, actually) between a team’s preseason winning percentage and their regular season winning percentage.

Raptorman wrote:Not sure If this was posted but it's an interesting read on pay of QB's.

We then plotted those seasons based on the quarterback’s winning percentage and cap hit percentage during that season. Here is the result.

We get a correlation coefficient of .038. If you’ve forgotten everything you learned in that statistics course you took back in college, that’s statistically meaningless. For a point of comparison, there is a stronger correlation (three times stronger, actually) between a team’s preseason winning percentage and their regular season winning percentage.

Pondering Her Percy wrote:For anyone that says Cousins "wasnt a good teammate" I say bull####. He seems like a very humble guy, a leader, appreciative to his teammates, etc. I'm so excited he's our QB

There are a few reports about Kirk not being liked in the locker room. Not a lot but they are out there. Whether they're true or made up, I don't know.

Now I was impressed by Kirks presser but after watching a couple of other interviews, he seems to say almost the exact same thing so to me, some answers seem very rehearsed. It's probably only me but I get a sense of fakeness when listening to him talk at times. Almost like listening to a really good salesman.

I also read that his teammates (especially the OL) love him. So some people love him, a few may not like him. But really, does it matter? There have been reports of teammates not liking Aaron Rodgers too. You don't have to be liked to lead. Respected, but not liked. As long as Kirk can lead this team to wins, I could care less if he turns out to be an obnoxious d**k that is full of himself. Maybe that's what this team is missing, a vocal leader with an edge. Brady, Rothlisberger, Wilson, Rodgers are all pretty arrogant at times. I can see Cousins fitting in fine.

Here's what Vernon Davis had to say about Cousins and his leadership a couple of years ago:

“He’s a young guy in the league, and I think sometimes we forget about that, that he’s only been a starter for two years,” Davis said. “And with that being said, he’s doing all the right things. He’s doing all the right things. Guys in the locker room love him. They think he’s spectacular. I do, as well, because of what he does. He minimizes himself in the locker room; in practice and in games he stands out like a sore thumb.

“And that’s what great quarterbacks do. That’s what they do. I watch those things, and he’s putting his teammates first. He’s putting his teammates first. So that’s first and foremost. He’s growing, he’s evolving, so I’m excited about his career and excited about his future. I think he’s going to be a wonderful quarterback in this league.”

Another teammate, Duke Ihenacho:

Kirk gotta dip out on Washington. He deserve more respect.

Cousins' backup for part of his time in Washington, Nate Sudfeld:

"I think the world of Kirk," Sudfeld told reporters Wednesday during a Super Bowl media session. "I spent a lot of time with him and developed a really good friendship together. The guy is a pro's pro, as classy as they get. He always does and says all the right things. His talent speaks for itself. He's got incredible arm talent, the way he can speed up his mechanics and get the ball out and make quick decisions.

"His process of how he gets ready for every game and takes care of his body has been really impressive, too. He has all of his days mapped out by the hour, what he's doing. He sticks to his process. I definitely learned a lot from him. He would kind of put me under his wing a pretty good amount. I think he's going to continue to have a tremendous career."

Five-time Pro Bowl left tackle Trent Williams:

"It's only his third year of having the team, and he pretty much knows everything from the linemen's responsibility to the backs', to the wideouts' - the whole thing. He can actually run a practice like a coach right now. He's everything you want in a quarterback."

I can go on and on. Four people -- two journalists, two former players -- none of whom have played with Cousins or covered him on a regular basis, have put forth this notion that Kirk Cousins isn't well liked by his teammates.

In a nutshell, it comes down to what Chris Lingebach of CBS Sports had to say:

So, in the span of six days, four people — Faulk, Smith, Patrick and Schultz — in the national media have floated a narrative, the same narrative about Cousins, one which never previously existed prior to this week. Weird.

As for whether he's a top quarterback, here's what Charlie Weis had to say before the Redskins traded for Alex Smith:

I think he (Cousins) is a top-five quarterback in the NFL. And I think that if the Redskins don’t go out and sign Kirk Cousins, it is going to set them back years.

Chris Simms of NBC Sports:

He is a franchise quarterback,” Simms later said. “You can win a Super Bowl with Kirk Cousins, hands down, certainly.

NFL.com analyst Ross Tucker:

“I like when people bash Kirk Cousins, because then I know that they don’t have any clue what they’re talking about,” Tucker said on his podcast. “I mean, that’s how bad it is. That’s how good the guy is. He’s the best quarterback the franchise has had in at least 25 years, and he’s a top 10 quarterback in the NFL.”

Former Redskins offensive coordinator, now NFL Coach of the Year, Sean McVay:

"He's not a guy you want to bet against," McVay said. "He's a guy that you believe is going to figure it out eventually, and once he got his chance, he clearly showed why he's very capable, and he's only going to continue to get better. That's why he's really easy to believe in. That's pretty consistent with any coach that's ever worked with him. You talk to any of these guys that are football guys, the thing that you'll hear consistently is that nobody is surprised that Kirk has played this well."

And we know what Mike Shanahan has to say about Cousins.

Is Cousins perfect? No. Nobody is. But is there still a ton of potential with this guy? In my opinion, we haven't seen anywhere near the best of Kirk Cousins yet.

God, I hope we havent seen the best of Cousins yet. He is getting 31 frigging million dollars in 3 years. Rick brought in Sam Bradford to win the SB that year, even admitted it, and that was a horrible move. I said so then and still believe it. This Cousins thing sure sounds like the same thing. But at least we dont have to train Cousins, thats one point where the Vikes are really lacking. With the way our roster looks now, even before the draft, and with our tough schedule, I think we could be right back in the Championship game. But ofc everyone will have to stay healthy. I think Cousins is going to have the best RB he has had this season. I sure hope he lights it up.